The vacating of the federal mask mandate for public transportation poses a “real challenge” to public health measures that might be needed in the future, according to a former COVID-19 adviser to President Joe Biden.
Michael Osterholm highlighted the importance of the mask mandate during an interview with ABC News on Sunday. Osterholm said that if the Department of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fail to have the mask mandate reinstated, the agencies’ ability to implement them during the next public health crisis would be at risk.
“It is a real challenge because this is not going to be the last of the need for public health measures to be taken for any crisis,” Osterholm told This Week co-host Martha Raddatz.
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS BIDEN’S ‘UP TO THEM’ MASK MANDATE COMMENT
The DOJ and CDC disagreed with the ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle last week to vacate the mask mandate on public transportation. Two days later, the Biden administration said it was appealing the ruling.
Osterholm brought up the “confusion” surrounding the mask mandate and the effectiveness of it, citing it as a “secondary issue, but one that is still important.” Speaking on the issue of confusion, Osterholm reiterated the same thing he told the New York Times, that “public health advice has been way off the mark.”
“First of all, let me be really clear, I am very, very strongly in support of a respiratory protection. Someone can do a great deal to protect themselves and protect others if they’re using an N95 respirator,” Osterholm said, adding that the measures airlines have implemented were basically just “checking a box.”
After judge strikes down mask mandate on mass transit, Dr. Michael Osterholm says issue has become “a philosophical and political issue, not a science issue.”
“The U.S. public is done with the pandemic, even though the virus is not done with us.” https://t.co/7wLclbwVDm pic.twitter.com/uGwnmd0pKm
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 24, 2022
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Osterholm pointed out that most people wear cloth masks, and they wear them either below their noses or take them off completely while eating and drinking. “I think that what we want to do is stop talking about masks and talking about effective respirator protection,” Osterholm said.
“The U.S. public is done with the pandemic, even though the virus is not done with us,” Osterholm said. “We have to recognize that in public health. You know, you can’t swim against a tide this magnitude.”
